Revenge of the Killer Microbes

Excellent seminar today by ex pat Daniel Wilson now based in the Gene Centre at LMU Munich on Man Against Microbe which included 3 vignettes on how 3 different classes of antibiotics - macrolides, tetracyclines and antimicrobial peptides - target the bacterial ribosome. The structural insights into how both erythromycin and a Pro-rich peptide block exit of the nascent polypeptide from the tunnel of the large subunit and how subtle changes can lead to resistance were elegant. Daniel did his PhD with Warren Tate in Biochemistry at University of Otago.